Teachers are eligible to retire at full benefits after 35 years or at 75 percent of the last four years ending earnings (bumped up by teacher differentials that are mostly divvied out by seniority).

In Rockford, it also means free early retirement medical insurance until Medicare eligibility kicks in.

Compared to everyone else in the community, retiring early is nearly impossible as real pension plans significantly reduce a pension payment every month you retire early. Social Security eligibility is now 12 years later than teachers' retirements.

What far too many teachers fail to ever acknowledge is that we promised state employees (especially teachers) far more than we knew we could afford to pay.

Yet, you can bet 20, 30 or 40 years of teacher union dues applied to pay-to-play politics cajoled politicians into taxpayer paid giveaways that would come due long after they were out of office.

Sadly, now the $500 to $1,000 per year union dues paid by the 100,000 or so Illinois teachers bankrolls a $50-$100 million per year nest egg to buy more political favors, preventing politicians from admitting we simply promised teachers too much — now we gotta go through the pain to fix the problem.